Man in blanket at centre of shop pheasant mystery

A man, with a blanket over his head, was captured on CCTV leaving the birds outside the shop

A shop owner says he has been left "mystified" after dead birds were hung on his shop in broad daylight.

Robert Hallam has run Jack Hallam and Sons gun shop in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, for 12 years since taking it over from his father.

After being alerted to the birds on Sunday afternoon, he studied CCTV to see an apparently elderly person, mostly covered with a pale blue blanket, leaving the pheasants on his shop front.

Mr Hallam said: "It's a small village, and gossip usually moves fairly quickly, but no-one has shed any light on this."

Jack Hallam and Sons was established in 1935, supplying equipment for a wide variety of outdoor pursuits, but in recent years has focused on air rifles and shotguns.

Mr Hallam said he was told there were birds hanging on the front of his premises while he was away on Sunday.

Robert Hallam said the incident was "one of the bizarrest things I have ever seen"

Looking at security footage that evening, he was bewildered by what he saw.

"There was this strange 'under cover' member of the public with a walking stick holding these pheasants and putting them either side of my window.

"They were obviously trying to hide from the cameras, and there is no obvious motive, whether it is a protest or a practical joke.

"It's just one of the bizarrest things I have ever seen," he said.

Another twist is that the shop is on the busy Buxton Road, and the birds were deposited in plain sight.

Mr Hallam said: "It was at about 10 past one on Sunday afternoon, so I thought someone might have seen someone getting dressed in a blanket and walking the streets, but, so far, amazingly, no-one seems to have noticed."

As he views it as "not a big thing", Mr Hallam said he would not be reporting it to the authorities.